Programme Manager

As a Digital Programme Manager, you will play a key role within Thames Water's Digital and Technology function, leading the delivery of significant digital and business change programmes across a complex organisational and technology environment. Working closely with senior business stakeholders, Digital leadership, engineering teams, product teams, suppliers, and delivery partners, you will ensure programmes are effectively planned, governed, and delivered to achieve strategic business outcomes.

This role contributes to Thames Water's digital transformation objectives by defining programme scope, benefits, budgets, delivery plans, and governance structures that enable impactful change for customers, communities, and the environment. You will provide strong leadership across multidisciplinary teams, manage complex dependencies and risks, and ensure programmes are delivered to agreed standards of time, quality, cost, and business value.

What you'll be doing as a Digital Programme Manager

• Lead and manage the delivery of significant Digital and business change programmes and/or portfolios of projects across Thames Water.
• Define and baseline programme scope, delivery plans, budgets, milestones, resources, dependencies, and business outcomes.
• Work closely with senior stakeholders, including Executive Director level, to establish clear programme objectives, benefits, priorities, and delivery expectations.
• Establish and manage effective programme governance structures covering cost, schedule, resources, RAID, dependencies, risks, issues, and decision-making.
• Lead programme delivery teams and coordinate internal and external resources to ensure successful delivery of programme objectives.
• Identify, assess, manage, and mitigate programme risks, assumptions, issues, and dependencies, escalating matters appropriately to senior leadership.
• Manage programme budgets of up to £10m per annum, ensuring effective financial control, forecasting, reporting, cost management, and delivery within agreed tolerances.
• Manage programme change across scope, time, cost, resources, and quality, ensuring appropriate governance and escalation where required.
• Coordinate technology solution assessments where required, ensuring proposed solutions align with business outcomes, technology strategy, architecture, security, and operational requirements.
• Oversee and support commercial and procurement activities, including RFI and RFQ processes, supplier selection, contract negotiations, and commercial governance.
• Manage supplier relationships across the full delivery lifecycle, ensuring suppliers deliver against agreed expectations for time, cost, quality, and performance.
• Identify and forecast programme resource requirements, including internal Digital resources and external delivery partners.
• Provide clear and timely programme reporting to senior leadership, including progress, financial performance, risks, issues, dependencies, benefits, and key decisions.
• Build and maintain strong relationships with business and technology stakeholders, ensuring effective communication, engagement, and alignment throughout programme delivery.

Base location
- Hybrid
- Reading (STW) - RG2 0RP

Working pattern - 36 hours Monday to Friday.

What you should bring to the role

• Experience delivering complex Cyber Security programmes or major projects within a large enterprise environment.
• Strong understanding of cyber risk management and the ability to translate technical cyber risks into business impacts, priorities and decisions.
• Experience working with Cyber Security teams across areas such as Identity & Access Management, Infrastructure Security, Security Operations, Vulnerability Management and Data Protection.
• Understanding of recognised cyber frameworks and standards such as NIS Regulations, CAF (Cyber Assessment Framework), CIS Controls, ISO 27001 and NIST Cybersecurity Framework.
• Experience managing cyber transformation initiatives involving multiple technology and business stakeholders.
• Ability to oversee programmes with significant regulatory, compliance and operational resilience requirements.
• Experience managing third-party suppliers and security partners to deliver cyber outcomes and remediation activities.
• Strong understanding of governance, audit and assurance processes, including managing actions arising from internal audits, external audits and regulatory reviews.
• Strong cyber stakeholder management.

Technical experience and skills

• Strong understanding of Digital and IT programme delivery within complex enterprise environments.
• Experience working with Agile, Product Management, Waterfall, or hybrid delivery methodologies.
• Practical experience of programme governance, RAID management, dependency management, change control, and delivery assurance.
• Experience coordinating technology solution assessments and working with technical architecture, engineering, security, service operations, and product teams.
• Strong understanding of financial management across Digital and technology…